I actually forgot where I found this game jam, it was either sent in a group chat or I saw it on a Facebook ad. I decided to join the jam because of the cash prize (hehe) which was around $10,000 for the grand winner. Additionally, the winner gets to have their entry as the official offline game for Opera GX, similar to Chrome's dinosaur game. And of course, the experience.

https://gamejolt.com/c/gamemaker/ogxgj

The jam requires the participants to use the GameMaker Studio 2 engine, which I have no experience with. I took the challenge nonetheless. I already had some experience in game development when I worked on Kamuning Munings, so I figured the most challenging part would be learning the engine.

As something that will be played offline and in a web browser, I decided to make the game as simple as possible. Also because that means less workload, given that I was just starting to learn the engine.

Gameplay

The gameplay involves a controllable character swimming in space tasked to collect 'WIFI packets' scattered across the screen which increases a score counter while avoiding UFOs.

The game format states that the entry "should have local multiplayer OR be designed to easily include local multiplayer" so I mapped other sets of group of controls which instantiates another controllable character upon pressing any respective key. The game allows up to 3 players playing using one keyboard.

A "life packet" will also randomly spawn across the map, which automatically revives the player upon death, assuming they have one. On multiplayer, this allows a dead player to rejoin the game by pressing any of their respective controls